All of this was overshadowed by the fact that my Uncle Ed (my mother's youngest brother) had passed away a few days before I left Mumbai. When I got the news from my sister, the 7000 or so miles between there and home for the first time seemed more like from here to the stars. I sat on the window ledge, looked out the window at the Arabian Sea and cried until it was almost time to leave for the center. I hated not being home for my mother, but there was no way I could leave. At least I was home for the funeral on Monday.
I must admit, Ed was my favorite uncle. I would venture a guess that most of my Mitchell cousins would agree. He was the uncle who would tease you, but never in any mean spirited way. I can't imagine there was ever a kid or a dog that Ed didn't like. He was a good guy and I will miss him.
Finally made it back to work on Tuesday....or at least made it until about 11:30 when the jet lag caught up and I could barely type well enough to create the accounting segments of several materials. Sent an e-mail saying I was going home, went home and slept for about three hours...Which of course meant I was wide awake at 3AM Wednesday.
By Wednesday afternoon, I was becoming one of those people I don't like. "How cool am I that I went India and had my own driver and the hotel staff greeted me by name?" Okay maybe not that bad, but it wasn't like I could whip up a PowerPoint (though I could have and it would have been awesome as my friends at Dorinco will tell you), grab a conference room, have the entire Midland CAEC as well as friends from other groups grab a seat and recap....
One of the things I had decided before I left for India (and gained my status as a Rock Star) was that after a year away, it was time to go back to Weight Watchers. Thursday evening I started again (hopefully for the last time) and was greeted with a warm hug from Barb and a few of the staff members. Barb asked if I was in better place than when I left and I could honestly say yes.
Friday, Christina turned 31 or 32. Can't remember. Happy Birthday, POOKIE!!! (Yeah I'm going to pay for that one)
The week ended with the Third Annual AIDS Walk Michigan which is held in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Ann Arbor, Flint, Traverse City as well as Bay City. There are several AIDS Walks in the country, but Michigan is the only state that has all of them on the same day. Quite awhile before the trip, I had volunteered to take over as the Dow representative which entailed not only organizing a walk team, but also being on the walk planning committee. I managed to get to all but the last meeting and have to thank Marc (who I was supposed to replace) and Kevin for stepping up while I was gone. It was a beautiful, crisp autumn day. Perfect for 300+ walkers, including the three freshmen from All Saints below (Kaitlyn, my niece Erica and Amanda-turned away from the camera). It was good to see a number of students as this walk is also about awareness as much as fund raising.
In the end, over $30,000 was raised which stays in the community providing services for people living with HIV/AIDS. I am also pleased to say that the team that raised the most money was the Dow team (that would be Kevin and I holding the trophy). Considering there were only 5 official team members, we did very well at over $2000. It helped that Kevin took the top individual honor as well.
Oh and on another note to my friends at Dow, as the Dow rep for this event you may see me on Dow TV (or whatever we are calling it these days) speaking about the event. Please remember that as much as I enjoy to hear myself talk, I am not a professional speaker. Let the harassment begin.
I guess this is the end of the Big Adventure. I apologize as I know my writing is a bit inconsistent and that I was not able to keep up as much as I would have liked to the last week. Thanks for all the nice comments.
OK, Julie. Time to start your magazine so we can ditch this whole corporate thing!
Lori
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